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Where are we headed? Ad Age's Where Series examines the unprecedented challenges facing marketers and offers a look at where the industry is going in 2021 and beyond. In the last of four quarterly reports, we highlight the trends fueling the evolution and growing importance of customer relationship management.
For Panera Bread, the future of customer relationships looks like this: One of the 45.4 million members of the MyPanera loyalty program walks into a Panera location. When the customer reaches the register to order, the associate behind the counter knows the customer, based on the payment and loyalty ID, and responds appropriately—saying hello by name, and perhaps offering a free cookie or personalized treat.
Or maybe that customer places a pickup order online or via the MyPanera app. The café staff is notified when to prepare the order—in a "just in time" way—so that the food can be as fresh as possible, via a geo-forecasted guest arrival system the chain plans to roll out in the first half of 2022.
It's all part of an expansion of the chain's digital capacity, with the goal a coordinated, 360-degree view of the customer that leads to a best-in-class experience. George Hanson, senior VP and chief digital officer for Panera, says, "With the app, we know who is ordering and what they're ordering, and have been able to leverage that data with surprise and delight rewards for customers. This year we rolled out in-app personal product recommendations and personal reorders that begin to leverage that data further. It allows us a data-driven merchandising approach. We can obsess over what we feature for...